Wangari Muta Maathai was born in Nyeri, Kenya, on April 1, 1940. She was awarded a Kennedy Scholarship in 1960 and traveled to the United States to study abroad. She received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Mount St. Scholastica College in Kansas, and earned her master’s degree in science from the University of Pittsburgh. In 1966, Maathai returned to Kenya.

Maathai died of ovarian cancer on Sept. 25, 2011, at the age of 71. The Green Belt Movement issued a statement reading, “Professor Maathai’s departure is untimely and a very great loss to all who knew her—as a mother, relative, co-worker, colleague, role model, and heroine; or who admired her determination to make the world a more peaceful, healthier, and better place.”